


Empty Pages

by Jeenius_the_Dork



Series: Medium Wind [3]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Legend and Marin content is the good kush, Legend is a fucking gremlin, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Look at poor Wind!, Medium Wind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 14:21:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20565788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeenius_the_Dork/pseuds/Jeenius_the_Dork
Summary: Something about the book wasn't right. Why was he the only one that saw the girl?





	Empty Pages

**Author's Note:**

> Back on August 14th my friend Saaah and I came up with an idea that Wind and Legend were the only ones who could see the people in his photo album from Koholint Island in one of the discord chats. Original idea was for Four and Hyrule to be the ones who mention there are no other people, however tbh Warriors seems like a better fit lmao. 
> 
> It was a month in the making however it's here now.

There were two books Legend owned that he was very protective over. The tattered, worn cover of both books made them nearly impossible to distinguish the difference. 

One he looked at far more than the other. Whatever content lay within the book he never shared. Whenever someone would get close he slammed the book shut before hastily shoving it into his bag. 

Whatever it was he didn’t want them to see.

Warriors joked it was his secret diary. Wind, however believed otherwise.

The other book translated ancient Hylian into Legend’s own. It proved to be very useful whenever they’d turn up around Time’s version of Hyrule. Passing it off to any of the other heroes besides Hyrule actually didn’t prove  _ too _ useful, however  _ that _ was something Legend was more than willing to teach his companions about.

The first book still remained mostly a mystery. However there was one thing that made it obvious it was one of the most important items Legend owned.

The red haired girl would always look at the pages along with Legend with a sad smile on her face. He would always hear her humming a song, one specific song. She sang it softly when Legend couldn’t seem to get a wink of sleep, and she frantically hummed it when Hyrule was doing his best to heal their resident salt man.

She was always humming the song. A beautiful ballad that somehow took Wind back home. He could practically feel the sea breeze brushing against his skin, heat the cries of seagulls far above his head and the rushing of waves on the sandy beaches of Outset Island. The girl’s song reminded him of how much he missed home.

There was something about the girl seemed almost unnatural. The way she seemed to move like flowing water. Her dreamy tone of voice. She didn’t feel quite as...real as the rest of the spirits did.

And he honestly couldn’t tell why.

-

On one day some may call unfortunate, others may call a miracle. The books had been carelessly left out in the open for any hero with too much curiosity to pick up. Half expecting it to just be Legend’s ancient Hylian dictionary Warriors picked it up and opened the pages.

The Captain’s smug expression wiped off his face, being replaced with confusion. He flipped through the pages quickly and as he progressed Wind and the others could only watch as his eyebrows furrowed together tightly. 

“It’s a photo album. However there’s something strange about these photos.” Warriors said. Flipping the book around, he handed it to the closest hero, Hyrule.

The wanderer hesitantly took the book from Warriors hands, delicately holding it as if a tighter grip would disintegrate the book. Looking over Hyrule’s shoulder, Wind honestly didn’t notice anything too weird. 

The picture on the open page revealed Legend and the girl standing on a cliffside overlooking the sea. Seagulls oth Legend and the girl smiled as she pointed to something in the distance in the picture. So in all honesty, Wind didn’t know if it was just a jab at the fact Legend rarely smiled or not.

Hyrule slowly turned the pages of the book, apparently coming to a similar conclusion as the Captain. His nose scrunched staring at one picture that depicted Legend and the girl, once again, both seemingly annoyed about the man wedged in between them holding up a peace sign as they stood in front of a weather vane.

“Why does it feel like there should be more people in these pictures?” Hyrule asked, handing the book to Wind. “Tell me I’m wrong, sailor.”

Wind almost laughed.  _ Almost. _ Well it would have been more like a nervous giggle. He saw the people in the pictures, no one else did. And honestly, he was pretty sure he knew why he was the only one.

Suddenly Wind didn’t feel so good. The world around him became fuzzy. His eyes could focus on the pictures he was supposed to be checking in for Hyrule. They were speaking to him but he couldn’t hear anything. Desperately Wind tried to think of something, anything that would distract him from...whatever this was.

Tetra. He liked Tetra. She had a fiery personality and could fend for herself. Sailing the seas with Tetra was always fun. Going off into the unknown without much purpose other than being in the sea, possibly coming across an unmarked island on his map.

_ These pictures were taken on an island. _

It felt like there was a tonne of bricks crushing his chest. He couldn’t breathe. Why couldn’t he breathe? It was pictures. They were just pictures. They couldn’t hurt him.

But then he considered what was going on in the pictures once more. Legend and the girl were together in a good portion of them. He was smiling, genuinely happy. It want like his temporary snarky smirks or when he laughed at the expense of the Captain. Legend was  _ happy. _ And the girl was obviously a big source of it.

_ A girl no one but him could see. _

A small part of him knew what this entailed. Legend loved that girl, however she wasn’t real. Even if something remained of her the fact was  _ she wasn’t real. _

_ This was partially why Legend was so bitter. _

“Who the fuck said you could touch my shit?” Legend asked, stomping out of nowhere, snatching the book back from Wind’s hands.

He still couldn’t breathe. Everything felt so fucking  _ wrong. _ Every other time his ‘power’ worked he never felt this gross. He was interacting with his friends dead friends, or family, whoever people close to them. It had been fine with Wild, who’d been living through the guilt of wrongfully believing it was his fault the Champions were dead. He could easily deal with Shadow because it had barely even been about Four. But for Legend?

Without being fully aware his legs began to carry him far, far away from the situation. Someone shouted after him, he couldn’t tell who through the haze. All he cared about was getting out of there. He  _ needed _ to get out. If anything it was for Legend’s sake. Legend couldn’t find out, much like how he wasn’t supposed to find out about the pictures.

Was he wrong about this whole thing? This whole time he was taking his powers to see spirits for granted, was it actually a curse? How much better was he really making things? Were things any better?

The little sailor sniffed as the sting of tears pricked his eyes. The only thing he could think of was  _ why? _

-

“What was that about?” Legend asked. The photo album felt heavy in his hands. He had his suspicions about Wind, however he wanted to see if Hyrule or Warriors would confirm it. They were there, they would know, both about Wind and about Marin.

“I honestly don’t know. We asked if he noticed the same weird thing about the pictures as we did and then that happened.” Hyrule explained. Legend’s eyes narrowed slightly halfway through his statement. There wasn’t really anything wrong with his pictures, except for his mood really. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like the follow up he  _ knew _ was coming.

“Weird  _ how _ , kid?” he asked slowly.

“Why does it look like someone else should be in them?” Hyrule responded with his own question.

Whatever he was expecting certainly wasn’t that. Opening the album the first thing that graced his eyes was the picture of him and Marin overlooking a cliff on Toronbo Shore. His fingers brushed over Marin’s spot. Honestly Legend didn’t consider himself too sentimental but in that moment he was as sappy as Wild with his diaries. For fucks sake he was supposed to be past this. 

Somehow he always knew, though. No one would be able to see those pictures of Marin because she wasn’t real to anyone other than himself and the Wind Fish. She would never be real.

That still didn’t explain Wind’s strange response.

The little sailor was weird. Sometimes he’d disappear on his own for hours on end and come back with another Link in tow and a skip to his step. He didn’t understand. Was this child-like optimism he just didn’t possess anymore? Was it because he was a fucking bitter, salty shitrag?  _ He didn’t fucking understand. _

There was nothing in the world that would make Wind react so strongly to empty pictures. 

Unless for him they weren’t empty. Maybe Wind didn’t want to tell them he  _ saw _ something others didn’t. Maybe Wind saw and somehow understood Legend.

He needed to find Wind.

If he were in better humour he would have laughed watching Warriors attempt to catch the book that was tossed at him. “I’m going to go look for pirate boy. Do whatever you want with that.” he called.

The veteran hero knew Wind couldn’t have gone too far, after all, there weren’t many places to go. He followed a straight path in the direction he saw the kid run off in, trying to ignore Hyrule’s words. 

It didn’t matter, they weren’t real. Even if all those people and creatures were real to him, it was only him. They were special to only him and he could really share that shit even if he wanted to. It was probably a good thing he didn’t want to.

Legend knew he was going the right way when the distant sound of pitiful sobs reached his ears.  ** _Fuck._ ** He hated crying children. He hated that it made  _ him _ feel terrible even though most of the time he had no idea why they were. It reminded him of the kid in Labrynna he told a terrible, long joke to and willed himself to be embarrassed by for the sake of that depressed kid.

He hated that it made him think of simpler times before he realized being thrown into adventure would never stop.

In the distance there was a small blue and orange ball. Sighing he walked towards the small sailor trying to prepare himself for what was to come. Was he in the mood to tell that awful elaborate joke for Wind’s sake? No half of the joke was lost to the ages, he needed words. Words he wasn’t used to anymore because of his bitterness. Nonetheless words he was sure both he and Wind needed to hear.

It was good that the kid was semi-aware enough to realise someone was coming. He sort of hopped to his feet, furiously trying to blink his tears away. Legend continued to stand where he was, waiting for Wind to settle down a bit, before flashing a peace sign to him. “Hey.”

The fierce determination on his face was instantly filled with fear and something else Legend couldn’t really place. It also seemed like Wind wasn’t looked directly  _ at _ him which only made him all the more suspicious. What was the kid looking at that was scaring him so much.

A quick turn around revealed nothing really out of the ordinary. Just some trees, the occasional bush and an oddly placed fence blocked off by a giant rock. Nothing strange at all. Obviously it was something Wind could see that Legend couldn’t, and he had a very good guess what it was Wind could see.

“You see her don’t you?” he asked.

The poor kid made a choked noise before slowly nodding. As his eyes closed Legend let out a deep sigh. He walked to where Wind was awkwardly between sitting and crouching before taking a seat beside the sailor.

“You don’t have to worry about it. She’s not real.” Legend continued.

“She is to you. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here.” Wind mumbled.

As a man who prided himself for having a comeback to everything he had to say this was the first time someone left him speechless. Wind may be a child by age but he was far wiser than his years. Something that came with being the hero he supposed.

Well...maybe excluding the wild one more often than not.

“Does anyone else know what you can see?” Legend asked.

“If they do they don’t bring it up.” Wind replied. “You’re not going to tell anyone are you?”

“Fuck no! Unlike some people I actually respect other people’s privacy.” Legend scoffed.

Almost immediately his brain started slamming on the  _ Fuck Go Back!!! _ button. Not the best choice of words. Wind looked immediately guilty rather than amused like Legend intended it to be. Dark comedy wasn’t the way to go right now...or possibly ever around Wind. Fuck stop talking.

“Who was she?” Wind asked, break Legend from his internal freak monologuing, or whatever you wanted to call it.

To be completely honest Legend felt a little obligated to answer him, especially after everything the kid went through. He didn’t want to talk about it, if anything he would prefer Koholint to remain a secret forever. But this one time, he owed it to Wind.

“You could say she was the girl of my dreams.” Legend wistfully replied.

“Ew. Oh my Hylia you sound like Warriors. I  _ can’t. _ ” Wind groaned, flopping on his back.

Legend clutched his chest gasping in a completely over the top fashion. In his best Warriors impression he shouted, “Oh that was  _ low. _ How  _ dare _ you compare me to that diva?!” 

Wind’s unimpressed, almost disgusted look spoke volumes. Good he should be, it was disgusting for him to pull a Warriors move so Legend honestly  _ hoped _ Wind regretted his words.

Within moments the kid was looking past him, cringing at the sight of the island girl’s spirit. Something told him there was  _ more _ that he didn’t know, however asking questions would only make things worse. For both his own and Wind’s sake he’d keep his mouth shut, lord knows he doesn’t do that enough.

“Are you mad?” Wind quietly asked.

“Are you fucking serious? Why would I be mad? I’m annoyed you were going through my stuff but I’m not going to blame you for something you can’t control.” There it was. The bitter tone of his words despite them also being reassuring. It wasn’t directed at him though, Wind noticed. Rather it was anger directed towards himself over  _ something _ he couldn’t comprehend.

He knew there were things they all regretted in their journeys. Lord knows how much of his own still weighed on his shoulders. However it was the hardest to pinpoint with Legend because the man never liked sharing. Or maybe he did and everyone else was just too blind to see it.

Legend shared his experiences in a different way. He didn’t outright say it like some, and it came out in extremely small doses. He remembered the veteran hero saying something along the lines of “Wild shouldn’t blame himself for the deaths of the champions because all the blame goes of Ganon.” Legend  _ understood _ that very well, a lot better than Wind initially thought. 

And even know, he didn’t blame Wind for something he couldn’t control. There were a lot of things they all had to do that were out of their control due to their title. A title some were just bestowed upon while others quite literally had to piece together in the form of a golden triangle. He knew he wasn’t the only one who had to do that. He  _ knew. _

It still didn’t ease him at all though. Knowing whatever the story to the girl was, and learning the missing piece to why Legend was so...Legend now would do what good? He’d know but at what cost? Would he start treating Legend differently because of it? 

Internally the sailor groaned as he dragged his hands down his face. 

“Legend if everything is fine like you’re so clearly pretending to be why do I feel terrible?” Wind asked.

“Listen, if we were happy every single day of our lives we wouldn’t be human.” Legend replied, picking at the grass. Turning to the sailor he flashed a gremlin grin. “You’d be a minigame runner.”

Wind remove his hands from his face with the same disgusted look on his face again. He narrowed eyes at Legend and slowly declared, “You are the  _ worst. _ ” 

“Okay fine you’re not in the mood for jokes right now. Geez alright.” he said throwing his hands up in defeat.

“Look point is you shouldn’t feel awful about something that’s honestly really cool just because I haven’t gotten over my bullshit feelings for a literal dream girl. I live with my choices, you don’t have to. And besides,” His tone darkens as he spoke his next words. “I don’t want your pity.”

That somehow got Legend talking even more. Honestly Wind never heard him talk that much about himself. It was...strange to say the least. It wasn’t bragging, nor was it completely self-deprecating. And things made a lot of sense. Legend was angry about a lot of things but the one thing that set him off more than anything was pity from anyone. Despite everything he still pulled through and would do whatever he needed to to save Hyrule. And to Legend, that’s all that mattered.

“Back to my original point though, you don’t control what you see. So pick yourself up, look like the goblin child you are or so help me I will start acting like Warriors again until you do.” Legend finished ranting.

Oh please Hylia  _ anything _ but that. There was only so much he could handle and Legend’s Warriors impression was not one of those things right now.

“No please seriously I physically recoiled inside when I had to. Just give one of those weird goblin looks. I can’t do this again.” Legend pleaded, though in reality they both knew he was more than willing to make fun of the Captain once again.

Rolling his eyes Wind pulled Legend’s stupid blue hat over his eyes. Before the man could protest about anything Wind deadpanned, “You quite literally asked for this.”

It only really occurred to them how long they must have been missing when Wolfie arrived, in a huff, giving them both a look they could only describe as a  _ neutral face of displeasure _ ™. A strange look for a wolf, almost like the one Twilight tried to give them whenever someone (mainly Wild) did something particularly stupid. 

Legend internally snickered, honestly if Twilight thought he didn’t know the  _ real _ identity of Wolfie then he was sadly mistaken. Waving the wolf off Legend hopped to his feet before offering a hand to Wind. “You heard Twolfie, let’s go. Everyone’s probably worried I tore you apart or something. I can see it in his wolfie little eyes.” 

As they passed by the wolf, Legend made a great deal of effort to continue bothering Wolfie. He overeggageratedly pet Wolfie’s fur calling him the “cutest pubby in the world” which only seemed to make the wolf more displeased than before.

With one last undignified growl, Wolfie took off back towards camp. Honestly Legend could have continued egging the ‘wolf’ on for another quick laugh, but he respected Twilight’s decision to keep the wolf thing a secret and wouldn’t mention it until the man decided to. 

Before reaching the clearing both heroes stopped. They could hear vague shouting that sounded a lot like Four, likely yelling at  _ someone _ about needing to take care of his swords better. And they expected nothing less of their dear smithy.

“I meant what I said. Your powers are really fucking cool, and you know how I’m not easily impressed.” Legend said.

“...this was not an invitation to hug me.” he deadpanned no sooner than five seconds later, stiffening as the thirteen year old grabbed onto him like a tiny Hylian speaking monkey. Wait no he knew monkeys that could speak Hylian...and he hated them. Kiki was a dirty bastard.

“It’s my way of saying thank you. I still don’t really know what exactly happened for me to...yeah, but it means a lot to hear that from you Legend.” Wind replied.

_ I will protect this child until my dying breath. _

“By the way, have you tried doing anything more with your power?” Legend asked, staring forward waiting for Wind to release him.

“What do you mean?” Wind asked. He seemed to have taken the hint and slowly freed Legend from the death hug.

“Well if you can see them is there a way you can channel that energy so other people can too? And I want to be clear this is a question  _ not _ a suggestion.” Legend replied. The little pout on Wind’s face made him want to scream. Hopefully this was another one on Wind’s gremlin jokes and he was trying to bother Legend. Because honestly after seeing some of the stupid shit Hyrule, and really any of them, did with magic Legend was about five seconds away from breaking something.

“I haven’t tried, and for your sake I won’t while you’re around. I doubt anything would happen though. The most I’ve always been able to do was see them. Besides I doubt it would end very well for a lot of people if I did.” Wind replied.

“Yeah I guess you’re right. Now come on. I’m sure Wolfie would  _ love _ more pets, especially from his favourite Link.” Legend said.

It was disgusting he was laughing at his own terrible jokes once more, however it was nice to see him better than before. Or seemingly better, honestly it was hard to tell with Legend. As walked away the girl appeared once again. She smiled softly at Wind saying, “He really is a sweet boy. Please keep him safe.”

Once more she disappeared, leaving a small seagull in her place. Watching it fly away into the dusky sky left Wind perplexed. He wasn’t sure if seagulls even came around this part of Hyrule however he wasn’t going to question it much. The world was getting stranger and stranger as they continued on their adventure. More things appeared in places they weren’t supposed to be. Nothing made much sense anymore.

Shrugging he continued on. Upon remembering the campsite, he was met with Four going absolutely feral on Wild for breaking a beautifully crafted sword the smith made for him. When he had the time to do that, Wind couldn’t really remember anymore. All he knew was it happened.

Warriors and Hyrule were profusely apologizing to Legend, who honestly seemed more uncomfortable than relieved about the whole issue. He waved his hands, desperately looking around for any sort of distraction to get them off his back. 

Wind chuckled at the sight, preparing himself to go check on an extremely annoyed Twilight poking at the pot containing their dinner. Wild must have left it behind after Four’s wrath had been unleashed.

Passing a look over to Time, Wind froze. A spirit he’d never seen around Time, or any of them really, floated there. Not much of his face was recognizable, however he did notice the faint blue and markings identical to the ones on Time. The spirit was missing an eye, however none of its attire was anything like Time’s.

Slowly, the spirit turned towards Wind. His voice caught in his throat upon hearing it speak. “Hello again, Wind.”

Before he could react any further the spirit disappeared. The clenching feeling in his chest appeared once more. His breathing got heavier as a single question looped through his brain.

_ Who was that and why did he know his name? _


End file.
